Variety Show of 2012
The Variety Show of 2012 is an event taking place in the hundredth episode of Moriah Blake. It was a several-day festival-type event, involving such activities as lightsaber fights and Family Feud games. The Variety Show culminated in the 2012 spring musical, Les Misérables, starring Scott McCrimmon and Irene Gervais. Conception and evolution Near the end of the third season, Principal Johns gathered together a group of Moriah Blake High School employees and pitched them his ideas to improve the school. This included replacing the current school mascot with a depiction of The Toby Tree, which Johns thought perfectly expressed the spirit of Moriah Blake. (This group consisted of Principal Johns, Bradford, Frau Junge, Mrs. English, Mr. English, Ralph Woodsmith, and Joe.) Early in the fourth season, Principal Johns put these plans into action. Unfortunately, he caused the school to exceed its budget to intolerable extents. When Bradford warned him of the school's impending collapse, Johns conceived the idea of a several-day variety show taking place the following spring and involving a football game against Olympia High School, as well as the spring musical. When Scott found out about the variety show, he begged Principal Johns to allow the school to put on Pink Floyd's The Wall as a musical. Johns—an avid Pink Floyd fan—agreed to this. However, he could not obtain the rights to the album, and thus was not allowed to perform it. Scott then suggested putting on Les Misérables instead, which Johns agreed to, after Scott assured him that he could obtain sponsorship from both McCrimmon Architecture and Mt. Olympus Architecture. Will McCrimmon readily agreed to support the play, but Monty Greene needed convincing. He finally settled on matching McCrimmon's funding, as long as his daughter Emily—currently Scott's ex—could take the lead role in the musical. Scott and Principal Johns agreed, although they were not happy about it, as Emily had very little musical talent. The other lead went to Ashley Donovan. Complications Very soon after Christmas vacation, Ashley was sexually assaulted by her boyfriend, Austin. Earlier, Scott and Emily had had sex. These events led to both girls leaving Moriah Blake indefinitely. Thus, the play lost its lead female roles. Scott—despairing of what to do—turned to Irene, his longtime enemy and Emily's ex-best friend. Irene had great musical talent, but refused to let it show. Scott had managed to discover this, and tried to convince Irene to help them out. She finally agreed to play both of the lead roles. Result Despite the months of work put into it, the Variety Show of 2012 was a major flop, and the school hardly gained any money from it. Because of this, Bradford and the school board decided to try an experiment with Moriah Blake, beginning in the next schoolyear. Moriah Blake would be fully converted into a self-sustaining private school. Because of the failure of the Variety Show, Principal Johns was forced to terminate the school's drama program, resulting in Scott, Devin, and Patrick joining the football team, and Patrick's final fall from grace.